Last year the Inner West Council (IWC) of Sydney restirred a heritage hornet’s nest, furthering its attempt to preserve urban culture by forcing protections on old pubs under its purview.
The Council’s proposal has now successfully amended planning controls, such that a total of 22 pubs have been added to the State Heritage register. These are in Balmain, Enmore, Leichhardt, Newtown, Petersham and Rozelle.
Council said this was to establish ongoing protection and recognition for the hotels, due to their “significant cultural contributions”. IWC also offers a mandate to prevent “inappropriate development” in areas in which it already approves or denies developments.
Those added to the register will have protections in place to preserve the exteriors of the buildings, as well as bars and interiors. The aim is to keep the pub culture alive.
Darcy Byrne, Inner West Mayor, said that for more than a century the Inner West pubs have been a social hub for locals.
“In recent years, we’ve seen long-standing pubs targeted by developers for conversion to office space or residential. These heritage listings will help to send a message that if you buy a long-standing pub in the Inner West, you should be prepared to operate it as a pub,” he said.
“Our Inner West pub culture has been the breeding ground for some of Australia’s best and most famous musicians and performers, and we want to make sure this continues into the future.
“We are committed to preserving and nurturing the pubs of the Inner West and their unique heritage.”
This motion first came to light in 2018, largely in reaction to Balmain’s former Town Hall Hotel, which was repurposed into retail spaces that year, but is now largely vacant.
While the Inner West community was supportive of the move, many pubs were concerned about the changes, citing concerns about the added burden of heritage requirements, which the publicans suggest are counter-productive to Council’s goal of promoting pub culture in the inner west and may quite possibly have the opposite effect.
A pub that is heritage listed will have a harder time finding a buyer or potential investor, who will likely be deterred by the headaches. Banks may want a re-valuation, and if the heritage factor causes a drop in value pub owners could be in a lot of trouble.
It’s suggested many of the nominated venues have “dubious” heritage worth, and that the threshold has been set too low.
The change would apply more restrictions on development, add complexity and uncertainty and generally be “another problem for proprietors” that makes it harder to fix or revive things, causes delays and adds major additional costs.
It’s reported council made a public statement that the proposal was in consultation with property owners, but publicans reported to PubTIC that “no-one ever contacted me” and that they are “frankly disappointed” with the matter.
Another described the initiative as “ridiculous” given his pub has been gutted – top to bottom – half a dozen times over the last 10-15 years, and there is nothing that is original. The Heritage specialist that wrote the report on his pub never even stepped foot inside.
“A heritage pub has to jump through so many hoops to do a DA. Upwards of $90,000 on extra reports, cost blow outs, time frame blowouts, the list goes on.
“We have all been painted with the one brush,” he says of the plan, dubbed “a half-arsed idea that we had no say in”.
But not all are completely opposed. Tim Condon has had his name above six Balmain pub doors, and says he understands council’s motive and sentiment.
Condon currently operates the Welcome Hotel, built in 1881 to serve beer to thirsty working-class locals. It was not created with a kitchen or many of the things taken for granted and essential to servicing people in today’s market.
The Balmain veteran thinks the precinct, surrounded on three sides by water and no longer populated with beer-swilling blue-collar workers, may actually have a few too many pubs, with a long list of venues fighting it out for what patronage is available during the week.
He says that while the preservation is admirable, it doesn’t facilitate a modern business needing to improve and upgrade.
“It needs to be considered, any heritage requirement versus the operational capability it must have in order to stay a pub.
“It’s hard when they say it has to be a pub, or you must work within a strict framework, but in a market that is changing and shrinking, in a building built for a different purpose, at a very different time.”
The following 22 pubs have now been added to the State Heritage Register:
- 3 Weeds Hotel, Rozelle
- Annandale Hotel, Annandale
- Carlisle Castle Hotel, Newtown
- Cat & Fiddle Hotel, Balmain
- Cricketers Arms Hotel, Balmain
- Dick’s Hotel, Balmain
- Duke of Enmore Hotel, Enmore
- East Village Hotel, Balmain East
- Garry Owen Hotel, Rozelle
- Livingstone Hotel, Petersham
- Native Rose Hotel, Rozelle
- Queens Hotel, Enmore
- Sackville Hotel, Rozelle
- Sandringham Hotel (former), Newtown
- The Balmain Hotel, Balmain
- The Royal Exchange Hotel, Marrickville
- The Welcome Hotel, Rozelle
- Town Hall Hotel, Balmain
- Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain
- Vic on the Park Hotel, Marrickville
- Warren View Hotel, Enmore
- Websters Bar, Newtown
These join the Inner West pubs which are already on the State Heritage Register:
- Ashfield Hotel, Ashfield
- Bald Rock Hotel, Rozelle
- Botany View Hotel, Newtown
- Courthouse Hotel, Newtown
- Crocodile Farm Hotel, Ashfield
- Dry Dock Hotel, Balmain
- General Gordon Hotel, Sydenham
- Gladstone Hotel, Dulwich Hill
- Golden Barley Hotel, Enmore
- Huntsbury Hotel, Lewisham
- London Hotel, Balmain
- Nortons Irish Pub, Leichhardt
- Petersham Inn, Petersham
- Public House, Petersham
- Riverview Hotel, Balmain
- Riverview Hotel, Tempe
- Royal Hotel, Leichhardt
- Salisbury Hotel, Stanmore
- Southern Cross Hotel, St Peters
- Summer Hill Hotel, Summer Hill
- Sydney Park Hotel, Newtown
- Tempe Hotel, Tempe
- The Henson, Marrickville
- The Royal Oak, Balmain
- Town and Country Hotel, St Peters
- White Cockatoo Hotel, Petersham